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As we’ve discussed many times during this podcast, getting your food photographs right is important. In fact, Gerry Speirs in episode 12 says the quality of your food photography is possibly more important than the number of your page views. So, that means we needed to have a chat about food photography. And that’s why I reached out to Matt Armendariz, because he’s not only a talented food photographer, he’s also a blogger too. He travels the world on different food photography gigs, and it all started with his corporate day job where he had the opportunity to interview different food producers, which sparked an interest to share his own stories about food. The rest, as they say, is history.

Food photography may be one of the most exciting parts about having a food blog. Not only is there excitement of owning a DSLR, but then there’s the lenses. Oh, the lenses we’ll have!

Then there’s the plates, and forks, and napkins. That’s the fun stuff. But lighting? Backgrounds? Now things are starting to get a little trickier. Mention white balance around a group of food bloggers and just stand back and wait for the groans. It’s not easy stuff.

A good food photographer is like a professional athlete — they make it look so easy. But when we, the amateurs, set out to do it ourselves, we quickly realize it’s not as easy as the folks like Matt make it look. Of course, sometimes the professionals have an entire team of people, including stylists, to help the process along. And we’re trying to do all of it on our own.

That’s why I reached out to Matt to talk with him about some great food photography tips for food bloggers.

Find photos you like, recreate them, you’re never going to copy it exactly, because you don’t know what it took to get that photo and you may not have the same environment and variables, but it’s a good way to experiment and to try and then you see maybe I don’t like how this photo turned out or I don’t like my shadows too dark or I like things to be super bright or the opposite. It’s just a good starting point. — Matt Armendariz

Of course, it helps that Matt has such an inspiring attitude about food. You know this if you’ve ever been to the “About Matt” page on his site. Matt gets the connection that people share with food. He captures this connecting power of food in every shot.

The more I travel and go around the world and share meals with people you realize it’s the one big uniter. And it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what your viewpoint is on life is, anything. I mean, you sit down to share a meal with people and we’re all equal. — Matt Armendariz

Matt uses a SunSeeker app on his phone to help him know exactly where the light is coming in.

Matt mentions a favorite show Happy Valley which is now on my Netflix playlist!

Today’s podcast was sponsored by Best Food Facts. If you have questions about the best way to cook your veggies, or maybe you want to read about the latest on controversial food topics, then head over to bestfoodfacts.org to learn more about all things food straight from university experts!

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Our next podcast interview is with Monique Volz of the blog Ambitious Kitchen. Monique and I talk about how to develop your brand as a food blogger. Monique has both a corporate background and experience with her own personal blog and consulting work with other bloggers on her belt so she has a lot of great advice to share. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!

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